In order to boost its revenues, Taiwan-based PC maker Acer Inc., needs a leader who knows the tablet market very well and is an expert in brand-building, according to an industry analyst.
Acer is the fourth largest PC vendor in the world but it has been struggling in recent years to bring its earnings up. With about 80 per cent of its revenues coming from the sales of desktops and laptops, the company is also one of the many computer makers hit by downturn of the PC market due to the fast rising popularity of tablet devices.
Apart from these woes, the company has had to deal with the much publicized resignation last month of its new CEO, Jim Wong even before formally assuming the post. Wong was supposed to replace J.T. Wang who stepped down. But both executives ended up stepping down “in the light of the company’s recent performance,” an Acer statement said in November. This prompted company founder Stan Shih to temporarily take the helm of Acer as chairman and corporate president. He will serve as chairman until June and will hold the post of president until a new one is chosen.
Arthur Liao, analyst for Fubon Securities Investment services, said Acer needs to find a leader that understands mobile products since the company had suffered in the last two years because its executives “had a PC-focused mindset.”
He said the company spent resources on ultrabooks and netbooks at a time when the PC market was shrinking.
Liao thinks Acer needs to focus on the tablet market and should perhaps gun for the mainland China market when low-cost Android tablets are in high demand.
Helen Chiang, analyst for IDC, said Acer is still perceived as a vendor of low-end PC products and that image is difficult to discard.
She said, Acer is charting a path identical to the one chosen by Dell and Hewlett-Packard when those two companies began to focus on enterprise products.